Religious Persecution Wienclaw, R.A. (2009). Religion and

Religious Persecution Wienclaw, R.A. (2009). Religion and Society: Religious Persecution. 1-5. The article is examines the issue of religious persecution from a theoretical perspective. The author places the challenge of international persecution within the most appropriate theoretical context. Theory seeks to accomplish three purposes namely to describe, explain or predict phenomenon. This work attempts to accomplish the first two objectives. The author describes the nature of religious persecution. Following the description the author, tries to identify key independent variables that are able to explain the phenomenon.

Consequently, it is not an examination of data that is produced from any primary research. The author combines existing knowledge of about persecution with secondary evidence to produce a compelling narrative about the nature of persecution and the central sociological issues involved in addressing persecution. The author is not reporting on any new research. There was a useful attempt by the author to categorize religious persecution. The categorization of religious persecution is the first step in providing a useful series of measures that will assist in adequately explicating the problem.

The author identifies a continuum of behaviors that can be legitimately considered as religious persecution. The behaviors range from the simple verbal assaults to physical violence against another person. This categorization provides a nominal level of measure. It is however an essential component of the attempt to measure the variable. The next logical step as identified by the authors is to produce a scale that allows for the quantitative measure of the problem.

Only counting the numbers of persons who have experienced religious persecution does not allow researchers to measure the problem. True measurement begins when social scientists can measure the thing it self not just the persons who have experienced religious persecution. Another important consideration from the article is that there is persecution that occurs within religious groups. The author is therefore identifying within group persecution as well as between group persecutions. The within group persecution was not a behavior that came readily to mind as a legitimate form of persecution.

However, the elaboration of the author demonstrates that clearly, when examining the full continuum of persecution within group should also be examined. Another key concept produced by the work was the challenge that is presented by the need for the person who is being persecuted to interpret the behavior as persecution (Grim & Finke 2007). This suggests that it is necessary to attach meaning to behaviors for the behaviors to be understood as persecution.

This need to interpret the behavior points to the value of symbolic interactionism as a useful paradigm to explore religious persecution (Denzin 1969). The position of the author was supported through the use of mainly anecdotal information. However, the events cited by the author are generally well-known to most readers of international news and events. The article fits into the literature dealing with the sociology of religion. The author briefly examines some of the main concepts in the sociology of religion (Wilkins 2003).

The work also identifies areas that should be useful arenas for future inquiry for other researchers. Thus the work identifies the lacunae in the sociological canopy that are yet to be satisfied by any legitimate research. This piece is critical to further.